771CSI Irons Win 2014 Golf Digest Hot List Distinction

For the 5th time, a Wishon Golf clubhead design has been selected as a recipient of the Golf Digest magazine Hot List award. For 2014, the 771CSI super game improvement irons were selected because of their high COR, variable thickness face and soft carbon steel body which allows a wide range of lie and face angle fitting adjustment. As the hit testing group of the Hot List said about the 771CSI irons, “the looks of the 771 say not much help here but this is a case where the looks can be deceiving,” and “for as thin as the top line is and traditional the sole, these irons are very forgiving.”

771CSI Carbon Steel Irons

All New Thin Face, High COR, Variable Thickness Face in a Carbon Steel Body to Offer a Wide Range in Lie and Loft Bending for Custom Fitting

Head body material is 1020C carbon steel to allow clubmakers to perform a wide range in loft and lie bending – previously all high COR thin face designs had to be mounted in a 17-4 stainless body, which limited loft and lie fitting options.

Conventional Head Size and Shape means a wider range of golfers will like the 771CSI design.

Fully Radiused Sole Design with Rounded Leading Edge offers golfers the best playability from all types of grass as well as from the rough.

20 Comments

All of the custom clubmakers and clubfitters are independent. They run their own shops on their own, they are not contractually tied to any of the suppliers they may work with, so they are totally on their own to set up their own retail prices for their services and clubs that they fit and build. BY law we cannot tell them what to charge as the final retail price for any clubs/sets they fit and build using our designs. So you will need to contact the clubfitter directly to inquire about his pricing.

I am building a set of 771s for a 12 handicap player. I built a test 7 iron and took him to the range yesterday. After some warm-up swings he hit 10 in a row right at the flag with a solid, boring trajectory he has never seen before. You should have seen his face! My client is VERY excited to play the completed set.

I had Dan Armstrong of Coos Bay, OR fit me for a set of 870ti irons a number of years ago & have been pleased with them. he mentioned he is trying some 771’s. They sound like something I might consider upgrading to. I’m a high handicapper with a not very fast swing speed (I haven’t had it measured for a while). Do you think the 771’s could improve my distance while maintaining accuracy?

If you have been playing with a set of 870Ti irons, then you have been playing with an iron model that has the highest COR design for the face that you can get in the industry today. While the 771’s are a really nice design, the COR on the 771’s is going to be the same as it is on the 870s, so you would not likely see any more distance increase. However, because the 771’s are designed with the body of the head made from soft carbon steel, it would be possible to bend the lofts lower on the 771’s and then that would give you a little distance increase over the 870s. Accuracy is NOT a part of the iron head design. Accuracy is something that comes from the fit of the clubs in terms of their lengths, lies, shaft, total weight, swingweight and grip size, not from the head design itself. So if you hit the 870s accurately enough to make you pleased, then if you ever changed the head design you would want to be sure that new head was built with exactly the same lengths, lies, shafts, total weight, swingweight and grip style/size that you have on the 870s.

Thanks so much for your interest and for your support !!!

TOM

Darren RostagnoFebruary 18, 2014

Dear Tom,

I am about to decide whether replacing my set of 560s with a new set of 771. Why?

I play the game for about 6 years now. During that time – in the first 4 years to be more precise – my HCP came down to 12.1. Due to injuries and some personal issues my current HCP should be realisitically somewhere in the range of 20.

I have a set of wishongolf clubs built for me already: 560 MC with a stiff stepless stell shaft, wedges, 919 driver, woods etc.. Not knowing why I get the feeling that these clubs put me under pressure, I would like to feel a lot easier when swinging a golfclub. That is why I consider a second set / the 771s with lighter / more flexible shaft profiles. My other set was fitted by Mike McFadden here in Germany.

The idea is now to bulid a set of 771s with a regular stepless steel shaft / maybe even superlight steel. My current set has standard specifications in loft / lie / shaft length etc. I am 44 years old and was considered im my strength as “above average” when I got fitted two years ago. Due to the demands of a new job, I do not find that much time to spend on a range anymore. My clubhead speed is probably also a bit above the average. Yet I would love to take things easier on a golfcourse. There are more important issues in life than becoming a single handicapper anyway.

Your reasoning does make sense. Maybe it is not the best to use me as an example, but I am 63, in very good physical shape because I do work out regularly, and I still have an 83-84 mph clubhead speed with the 5 iron and I can still hit a lot of quality shots when I play. (I can’t score as well as I used to but hey, as you said there are more important things in life, right!!??) I have been playing the 560MC irons since day one of their existence and I have always liked them enough that this many years later I still play the 560s. However, two years ago I sensed that my heavy steel S flex shafts just were feeling too heavy. So I switched to the S2S Black 85 graphite iron shafts and when I did this, I chose the R flex. I found that I liked the little lighter weight that these graphite shafts brought to the irons.

Then last year there was a day late in the season here when I was playing 9 holes with my son (28 yrs old and STRONG) and the asst pro. We get to a par 3 hole where both of them pull out a 6 iron and I know I have to hit a 5 iron. But that day I just happened to have a 771CSI 6-iron test club in my bag from some test project I had been working on previously. So instead of hitting my 560MC 5 iron, I hit the 771-6 iron and hit the shot to the back of the green, while my son and the pro hit their 6 irons to the middle of the green.

So the net result is as the season is about to come here in Colorado, I am also seriously thinking about changing from the 560’s to the 771s for my own set and to put the 771’s on these S2S Black 85 R graphite shafts just so I know I am comfortable with both the weight of the irons AND the distance!!!! So this just means that your reasoning does seem sound to ME !!!

TOM

Brian GlaudiniApril 15, 2014

Hi Tom,
I just have to say Thank you! I was doing some research because I was in the market for some new clubs and I was looking at the latest and greatest from all the name brands and I almost bought a set of Mizuno JPX EZs. But something told me to keep looking. I came across Gene Bonk’s website and saw your testimonial for him, which lead me to your website. All I can say is wow and thank you for all the information. It made so much sense to me. Gene is only a 1/2 hour away from me. Needless to say,I just had a set of 771’s built for me. I played with them on Sunday. I usually shoot in the mid 90’s, I shot an 84 on Sunday and that was with a quadruple bogey. I’ve never been close to that in my life! If a few more putts would have dropped I break 80! The clubs felt so good and my off center hits still flew close to my normal distance.
Great work and I’ll be spreading the word.
Thanks,
Brian

Thanks so very much for taking your time to share your experiences with the new sticks. What a truly nice message for us to be able to read. It is so easy to see the smile on your face while reading your comments!! No matter how much pleasure I get from my work to think up designs, research and create them, that pleasure really does pale in comparison to the pleasure I get from being able to read the comments you made. Thanks so much and the very best wishes to you in this great game to continue the enjoyment you are beginning to experience!

Hi Tom, Regarding your answer to a golfer’s testimonial you wrote the following response about your set of 560MC’s:

“……..two years ago I sensed that my heavy steel S flex shafts just were feeling too heavy. So I switched to the S2S Black 85 graphite iron shafts and when I did this, I chose the R flex. I found that I liked the little lighter weight that these graphite shafts brought to the irons.”

To my knowledge, aren’t heads pulled for production in accordance to the weight of the shaft? In your case you would’ve had light heads to accommodate the heavy steel shafts. So the result of you changing out the shaft to a lighter graphite shaft would have made the set of irons VERY light. Did this help in satisfying your results? Is this a practice you would recommend to the average Joe Golfer like me to think about when possibly changing shafts – no matter which model irons?

KIM:
The need for increasing headweight to achieve normal ranges of swingweight when using lighter weight shafts is one of the reasons why many years ago I began to design all of my clubheads with a weight addition chamber located directly below the shaft bore in the heads. Over the past few years I also began to design many of my fwy wood and hybrid head models with a second weight addition chamber located on the toe side of the sole covered by a little logo medallion to offer the ability to add even more weight to the head for additional circumstances such as making the clubs shorter in length. No question when a golfer needs lighter weight shafts, it is also critical to performance for the clubs to be fit and built to the right swingweight to match to the golfer’s tempo, downswing force, sense of headweight feel. To just install light shafts and ignore the swingweight or the MOI of the clubs is not a good thing to do.

So with our head models, when the golfer needs a lighter shaft or a shorter length, the clubmaker has the ability to add the weight in the head to get the clubs up to the typical required ranges of swingweight. The big companies don’t do this because they design their heads to be built into finished clubs which are all made to one series of standard specs – same length, same shaft weight, same grip weight, same std swingweight. But when the big companies make graphite shaft versions they overcome this lack of a weight addition capability in the head by making their graphite shaft sets +1/2″ longer than their steel shaft versions. This to me as a clubfitting specialist is BS (pardon the expression). The length a golfer needs is based on his/her height + arm length + many other swing related characteristics (tempo, transition force, swing path, ability, comfort). Clubs should never be forced on a golfer at a longer length just simply to allow one head model with no weight addition capability to be built to different lengths to be able to come out at a normal swingweight.

I just got fit properly today and ended up ordering a set built to my specs with Steel Fiber 110 shafts. I learned a lot in my fitting session today. First I have been playing iron shafts which were too stiff! As a result I was struggling to make center face contact consistently. I was also not fully loading the shaft. Long story short I ended ordering a set of 771 built to my specs with Steel Fiber 110 shafts. The combo gave me great results on the monitor and felt absolutely fantastic. I have been playing a big brand forged set and the 771 felt just as good although they are cast. Can’t wait to get them!

Many thanks for taking the time to post your comments. Very much appreciated and we’re very pleased to hear that the 771’s give you the right shotmaking results you are looking for. Even though the BODY of the 771’s is cast, nothing else about the model follows the typical results of a cast iron head. The body material is 1020 carbon steel, which is on the softer side even compared to forged carbon steel irons since most forged irons are made from 1030 alloy. But the separately welded thin, high strength steel face plate with its variable thickness design is the key/secret to why the 771’s perform well.

Thanks so much and the very best to you in this great game!
TOM

Tarek ZachariaSeptember 5, 2014

Hi Tom,

I hope you are well.

I recently got fitted in Dubai by Edwin from Clubworks UAE for a set of 771’s, and I have to say he did a fabulous job! The clubs are great in so far as they provide a perfect flight and the right distance, but the feel can be a little muted at times. So I asked Edwin to build a set of 560’s (based on similar specs), and given the forged head, they certainly provide more feedback. My shots feel more precise with the 560’s, however they also require an accurate strike each time to get the best of the club.

I am torn between the good looks and enhanced feel of the 560’s, and the forgiveness and consistency of the 771’s.

So I guess my question relates to which irons to go with…do you typically go with a club that you can hit comfortably and consistently (771’s) but with less precision, or move up to a more precise and slightly less forgiving iron (560’s) and learn how to adjust to that?

Either way, both the 771’s and 560’s are fabulous clubs! You have a big fan here in Dubai.

Thanks very much for taking your time to write and share your fitting experience with Edwin Scheepers. We’re pleased to hear that he did a good job in your fitting and that you like the results. Especially to hear that you like the 560MC forged irons and the 771CSI irons both! The main difference in choosing between these two models has to do with whether you need or want the additional distance that the 771’s can offer due to their high COR face design. Both the 560s and the 771’s are very good for off center hit forgiveness. While the variable thickness face of the 771’s is going to offer a little bit more off center forgiveness over the deep cavity back design of the 560MC, the difference is not a huge difference.

Therefore it really comes down to the fact of whether you really do want the increased distance that will come from the high COR face design of the 771. If that is a major priority for your game to have more distance with the irons, then you will just need to accept the little difference in the impact feel between these two models. The 771’s do feel a little different than the 560s because the 771’s have that very thin, variable thickness, high COR face design. That is definitely a different face design and a different face impact feel than what you would get with the thicker carbon steel face area of the 560MC.

If you feel that you have to have that forged iron impact feel of the 560s but you still would like to have a little more distance, it is possible to bend the loft angles of the 560’s by a couple of degrees lower to get a little more distance. While the 560’s are carbon steel forgings and can be bent more than 2*, for a loft reduction bend, we really do not recommend anyone bend ANY iron model lower in loft by more than 2* so as to be sure to keep the sole design working properly.

I hope this helps and thanks so very much for your kind words! We really are committed to proper custom fitting as the best and the only way that any golfer should purchase his clubs, because accurate fitting is just so much better for golfers than buying standard made clubs off the rack.
TOM

Wally du TempleFebruary 27, 2015

I am presently playing golf with a set of irons all with shafts of the same length. These are made by 1-IRon golf. I like them and the idea behind them. However, I think that I would like the 771s better. Is it possible for one of your fitters to assemble a set of 771s with shafts of the same length and get everything right, lie angle, total weight, swing weight and and.

Thanks much for your interest. we’re always happy to help. Unfortunately, it is not possible for a set of iron heads designed to be built to conventional length increments to be used to make a set of single length irons. In a single length set, every iron head has to be made to have the same headweight and the same lie angle. This way when they are all assembled to the same length, the swingweights come out the same and the lie fitting is the same for each iron.

In a conventionally designed set of iron heads, each head is made to a different head weight and to a different lie angle to accommodate the fact that each iron will be made to a different length. While it could be possible to bend the lie angle on the 771’s to come close to having all the heads be the same lie, the fact that the head weights are all designed in 7 gram increments of weight from 246g on the 4 iron to 281g on the 9 iron and 283g on the PW, it would be impossible to remove weight from some heads and add enough to the other heads to allow the heads to be used in a single length assembly.

I can tell you that I have been working on a new concept for a single length set design in which the 4 and 5 are high COR hybrid head models, the 6 and 7 are high COR irons just like the 771CSi design, and then the #8 to AW are conventional cavity back irons. The set will be designed to all be built to either a 7 iron or 8 iron length as the golfer is more comfortable with. So this will be a bit different than any of the other existing single length sets. If all goes well perhaps we are looking at mid summer for the completion of this project.

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